The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    amike's picture

    Click through to Chris Hedges, if you will

    By amike on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 12:52pm |
    I spend less time blogging here than I once did, though I remain a pretty faithful reader.  It may be cyclical--when time expands, so does blogging time, after all.  But it may be symptomatic of a recurring unease I feel, and Chris Hedges in his essay Are Corporations Using the Internet to Accelerate Our Cultural, Political and Economic Decline? has articulated one of the  sources of that unease.

    The great promise of the Internet, to open up dialogue, break down cultural barriers, promote democracy and unleash innovation and creativity, has been exposed as a scam. The Internet is dividing us into antagonistic clans, in which we chant the same slogans and hate the same enemies, while our creative work is handed for free to Web providers who use it as bait for advertising.

    Parts of the essay are way, way over the top, and I still think the Internet is the greatest democratizer since movable type.  Nor do I think that Corporations are the particularly guilty of creating anonymous. mob-like crowds:  people can do that quite well all by  themselves.  But considering the question of opening  up dialogue, I see a good deal of truth in his assertion

    The Web, at the same time it is destroying creative work, is forming anonymous crowds that vent collective rage, intolerance and bigotry. These virtual slums do not expand communication or dialogue. They do not enrich our culture. They create a herd mentality in which those who express empathy for "the enemy"--and the liberal class is as guilty of this as the right wing--are denounced by their fellow travelers for their impurity.
    I'm putting Jaron Lanier's book, You are Not a Gadget, on my spring break reading list.

    So click through--or don't.  You are not a gadget, after all.